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Show me your BICYCLE license?

I was with The Unsilent and The Puppeteer today at the Fort Railway station trying to load our bikes onto the next rain to Galle. Obviously this being the first time we were using the SLR cargo service so we went over to the inquiries booth. We asked him about the procedure in getting the bikes aboard the cargo train and he said that we would need our NIC’s and get this, our ‘bicycle licenses’!!. I mean WTF! Who ever heard of a license for normal foot powered cycles. So after laughing over it for a few minutes and coming to the conclusion that he’s still going by the rules from a few decades ago we went onto the cargo depot which is a separate building west of the main station. Even there after the registering the bikes on their cargo inventory, we were asked to produce our bike licenses. By this time we thought the inquiry guy was an idiot but now after we told this guy we didn’t know what a bike license was, the whole cargo depot looked at us like we were the idiots. It was just bizarre as none of us in all our years of biking have ever heard about it. Ofcourse, seeing our genuinely bewildered faces they let us load the bikes and told us to go to the municipal council next time to get a license. Apparently it costs five rupees and is mandatory for anyone who owns a bicycle. And here I thought the election was ridiculous.

16 thoughts on “Show me your BICYCLE license?”

Everyone knows you need bicycle lisences noob! although it is only used by people who regularly ride them. And not very strictky enforced. Look for the little metal square with some lettering stuck on the bike.

Now only the TV, you suppose to have a license for your radio also. They visited house to house every year checking license. Not only that if you build a radio with few transistors and a coil rod, you suppose to produce that and get a special license too or you will be thrown in jail.

They’re still used man, they just don’t care about it much since a fine is usually around 5 rupees, and nobody really wants to do the paperwork for a pittance. Even my dad asked me to get one when we started cycling…

There are few things you need to know as a Sri Lankan. When he asked for bicycle license he actually mean, 200Rs please.

You need bicycle license just like your dog and your house and such. You can be fined and thrown in jail.

And 5Rs bicycle license they will give you a small metal plate, which cost government 80Rs or more to produce. The Clark’s time, paper work storage and office and such cost government further. Your day off to get that done, cost the economy couple of thousand Rs. So if you want to bring the country down instantly, I suggest everyone should register their bicycles.

It’s probably because the opposition party will go into a furore, stating that it rocks the very foundations of this perfect Buddhist society and that the Western forces are the ones responsible for these ghastly thoughts!